Genting Highlands

Ivan, Jennifer and I checked out of the Reggae Guesthouse on April 20, 2009. We kept our bag at the guesthouse. We walked to the Post Office. Jennifer had to send out a package. Also, we got some stamps to send out our postcards.

Once that was all taken care of we decided to visit the sushi buffet from the other day again. For some reason it want as good as the first time, but it was still really good. I managed to find some banana sashimi this time which was really good….even though it was just raw bananas, which is what I eat all the time anyway!

We then got in a taxi to take us to the Genting Highlands. This is a mountain resort in Malaysia described a the ‘City of Entertainment’ – which is also how Las Vegas is sometimes described, so we were really looking forward to it. The drive there took about 50 minutes, and we were climbing quite steeply. We were dropped at the chair lift station, and we got our tickets and got into the gondola.

It was the longest cable car in South East Asia apparently. The views were really incredible. We arrived at the top and checked into the ‘Theme Park Hotel’. Check-in was really quick, compared to the first world hotel also at Genting- which is the largest in the world (i think), where apparently check in can take up to 5 hours! I used the Internet for a bit as I was behind on my blog, while Ivan went out to check out what was going on at the Genting Highlands.

That evening after some dinner at a place cleverly named ‘Only Mee’ (Mee means noodles in Malaysian), we went to see a show called ‘Dreamz’. It was like a Vegas variety show, with magic, bad attempts at comedy, and white lions and tigers. They were really scary and I had to hold Jennifer’s hand really tightly. The show was okay – the worst bits were the comedy elements which was just embarrassing. The illusions weren’t that bad, and the highlight was the motorcycle cage. There were four guys on motorbikes riding inside a very very small metal cage, criss crossing all over each other. I wasn’t allowed to take my little monkey camera inside and neither was Jennifer and Ivan so we don’t have any photos of the show.

On Tuesday 21st April, we decided to spend the day in the theme park which was attached to the hotel – in fact it was right outside our hotel room window.

We started off with the outdoor theme park.The first ride we went on was the flying roller coaster. Jennifer was too scared to go on it, so I went on it with Ivan.

It was really fun – you start off standing up, but then you end up in a flying position and zoom around the ride really fast. It really did feel like I was flying. We had to pay extra for it though, as the wristbands we had didn’t cover it.

There was a cafe there called the London cafe. The food wasn’t very British, but they did have an original London bus outside.

The rest of the rides in the outdoor theme park were not that good. Ivan thought the space shot one was okay – but compared to most rides in American theme parks it was all a bit disappointing really.

Next we went indoors to the indoor theme park. We went on a 4d ride.

It was nothing special – I have been on these kind of rides before when I was working in Circus Circus. I used to go on it during my monkey lunch break after I had eaten my bananas.

There was also a roller coaster that was so slow it was more like a monorail.

We then decided to go into a place called ‘Snow world’. They gave us jackets and gloves to keep us warm. Apparently not many monkeys visit the place so they didn’t have any monkeys sized jackets, so instead Jennifer kept me inside hers, where I could stay nice and monkey warm. Inside was like being outside when it was snowed..or at least that’s what they wanted you to feel. There was snow everywhere, and it was very cold, so they got that bit right.

There was a small slide there that only children and monkeys could go on, so I had fun on that one, while Jennifer and Ivan went on the snow tube. They said this was really fun. Basically they walked up lots of steps, then sat on a rubber ring, and rode the hill down to the bottom.

We were not allowed to take photos in there – instead you have to pose for photos from the official cameraman and then pay a lot of money for them. But of course this would be no good for us because I need my photos digitized so I can use them on my blog. So we just pulled our cameras out and started taking pictures anyway.

This made the staff really mad. They kept on saying we were bad people and rude. Ivan pointed out that he wasn’t going to pay 10 us dollars for one photo because its a ripoff. They were not happy at all.

That evening we went to a Vietnamese restaurant or some dinner. Jennifer had Chicken Pho, and Ivan had some tasty fish hotpot.

I had bananas Vietnamese style. We finished off the night in the arcade playing some video games.